When most people think of the classic TV show "I Love Lucy," they picture Lucille Ball's on-screen antics. But there was a secret behind the show's success: her co-star and real-life husband, Desi Arnaz.
Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Archer III (1917-1986) was born to a wealthy and politically connected family in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba. But his success was far from assured. Following the Cuban Revolution of 1933, all of the family's holdings were confiscated. And his father was briefly detained.
The family fled to Miami and began life again. Desi attended high school and found a job cleaning canary cages at a local store. This humbling experience fueled Arnaz's success, Todd S. Purdum, author of "Desi Arnaz: The Man Who Invented Television," told IBD. "I think his childhood privileges gave him a great deal of self-confidence. Then losing everything gave him a certain fearlessness. He thought: 'I lost everything. So what other bad thing can happen to me?'" Purdum said.
Develop New Skills Like Desi Arnaz
Arnaz had limited musical talent. But he taught himself a few guitar chords and landed a job with a late-night rumba band at a local hotel. Patrons seemed reluctant to get up and dance to the then-unfamiliar Latin rhythms.
So Arnaz turned to "an uncanny early instinct for showmanship" and a willingness to try the unconventional, Purdum said. Arnaz approached the leader of the main house band with a request: "End your set with a bouncy Cuban number that will have people on their feet." Midsong, Arnaz's bandmates would begin to sit in and start their set with people already up and moving.
It worked. And the band soon attracted large crowds. Arnaz gained attention. Bandleader Xavier Cugat noticed. And he hired Arnaz for his Waldorf-Astoria-based orchestra.
Strike Out On Your Own
But Arnaz was restless and ambitious. After a few months with Cugat, he ventured out on his own. Arnaz gathered some musicians and signed a 12-week guaranteed contract at a new club in Miami. Unfortunately, they were fired and given two weeks' notice after the first set. Desperate, Arnaz recalled the conga lines that celebrated Carnival back in Cuba.
He borrowed pots, pans and utensils from the kitchen, told his bandmates to follow him, and started an impromptu conga line around the dance floor. He invited the audience to join in. And that spontaneous moment changed his life.
Word soon spread, and Arnaz's conga line became a must-see attraction. And the dance floor of the renamed La Conga Club was the place to be seen.
Harry Richman, a then-popular singer and actor, was in the audience one evening when Arnaz gave a less-than-stellar performance. Richman told him: "Don't ever do that again. You don't know who might be sitting out there. You should do your best all the time, whatever you are doing."
It was advice Arnaz took to heart and also proved prophetic. Sitting in the audience one night was Lorenz Hart. Hart was part of the musical writing team of Rodgers & Hart. He loved Arnaz's charisma.
Arnaz: Focus On Mastery
As a result, Arnaz was soon cast in a Broadway musical, "Too Many Girls." Arnaz became the talk of the show business world. He was offered a major film role. He took the long view, though, and decided he had too much to learn still and stuck with the Broadway show.
That decision proved fortuitous. The "Too Many Girls" movie followed the musical. The movie producers picked Arnaz to reprise his role. And the role of the young female lead went to a redheaded contract player named Lucille Ball. They fell in love during the production. The two eloped in 1940.
Arnaz continued his upward career trajectory. He appeared in films, toured with his orchestra, and served as musical director of Bob Hope's radio show. There was some tension between the two stars. But Arnaz never considered leaving. "I was going to the best college anyone could hope to find to learn the art of comedy as taught by its leading professor," he said of Hope.
Jump Into New Technology
The Ball and Arnaz couple next plotted to move into television. In some ways, it was a radical idea. TV was a curiosity. Established artists looked down on the new medium. Even so, convincing CBS to proceed with what became "I Love Lucy" required shooting a pilot. And the idea almost ended before it began.
The Arnazes and CBS were still haggling over details. Just before filming began, a network executive threatened to halt production if no contract was signed.
But Arnaz had confidence in the show. He put his money where his faith was. Told it would cost $19,000 to film the pilot, Arnaz said he'd pay for it himself. And then he would own the show outright. CBS quickly changed its mind.
Believe In Yourself Like Arnaz
Arnaz's willingness to spend money was typical — and freeing, says Madelyn Pugh, one of the show's co-writers. Co-writer "Bob (Carroll) and I have always attributed a great deal of the success of 'I Love Lucy' to the fact that Lucy could do absolutely anything we could dream of, and Desi would pay for it. It gave us marvelous creative freedom. Nothing was impossible. If it was funny, we could do it," she said.
To understand how revolutionary Arnaz's next move was, it's necessary to appreciate how primitive TV was then. There were no national entertainment broadcasts. Almost all shows transmitted live from New York only to the East Coast and Midwest. Shows were recorded on kinescope — that is, filmed off a TV monitor — for rebroadcast on the West Coast the following week — despite the poor quality of the finished product.
Focus On Quality
But Arnaz changed all that by insisting the show be filmed on 35mm theatrical film. He contended: "I just knew we could do a better show on film. Lucy would be better photographed, and whatever mistakes we made during filming could be corrected in retakes."
He was so sure it would work that he gave back part of his salary because of the extra expenses involved. But another problem arose. Lucy's comedy worked best in front of a live audience.
Typically, when filming, scenes are shot out of order and multiple times to allow the camera to get reaction shots from different actors. That process would bore a studio audience and negate the point of having them there in the first place.
Arnaz and the production team decided to use three separate cameras to record simultaneously from different angles. That eliminated the need to record separate reaction shots. That preserved comic timing and allowed the dialogue and audience reaction to be synchronized.
Desi's daughter, Lucie Arnaz, told IBD: "In the beginning, I don't think he realized the impact some of his decisions would have on the future of television. No one did."
"My father," Lucie Arnaz, continued, "fearlessly asked why and why not about challenges in his path, and by doing so he solved many problems throughout his life."
The three-camera shoot became an industry standard. Shooting this way opened new possibilities for artists and the networks. There was now the option of rerunning shows previously put in a kinescope dustbin.
Stand Up For Yourself Like Arnaz
But it wasn't just Arnaz's innovative thinking that fueled his success. It also was his willingness to fight for what he believed in.
Both CBS and the show's sponsor, Philip Morris, did not want to show Lucy's 1952 pregnancy on air. They insisted she hide her growing belly behind furniture. But the producing team wanted her progress to be part of the show's comic narrative.
So Arnaz wrote the sponsor's chairman. Arnaz reminded him it was a No. 1 show — largely following the creative team's instincts. If that autonomy was taken away, the show's popularity would be too.
Philip Morris caved. And the world watched as Lucy's pregnancy developed.
Double Down On Success
The show's success expanded the business at Desilu Studios, the company the Arnazes formed. Having perfected the techniques that worked on "I Love Lucy," the couple used them to produce several long-running comedies like "Our Miss Brooks" and "December Bride."
Business boomed. By 1957, the studio produced or rented soundstages for at least 17 shows. The following year, the studio was the No. 1 TV producer with $32 million in overall production.
But Arnaz was successful at more than just comedy. He drove the successful "Untouchables" series, which started life as a two-part miniseries — the first made for TV movie ever. Not bad for a "sidekick."
Desi Arnaz's Keys
- Helped create one of the most successful TV comedies ever and changed the way the medium was run.
- Overcame: His family's early economic hardship leading to his departure from Cuba.
- Lesson: "I'm no singer. As a matter of fact, I'm not a very good actor. I can't dance and I don't write. I don't do anything. But one thing I can do, I can pick people."
